Looking For Group
Looking for Group is a fantasy-themed webcomic written by Ryan Sohmer and drawn by Lar DeSouza. The Comic follows the quest of Cale'anon (an elven hunter) and Richard (an undead warlock), as well as their companions. Since its launch on November 26, 2006, it has received positive attention at Stratics and the World of Warcraft community. Overview Looking for Group's Ryan Sohmer and Lar deSouza draw the themes of Looking for Group from many influences, such as Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth series, Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time series, George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire (with several acknowledged news posts of this), and Blizzard Entertainment's popular MMORPG video game World of Warcraft. The art style and the title imply that it was originally intended as a parody of World of Warcraft - the four main characters resemble four of the five Horde races in World of Warcraft - but outside of artistic similarities, the strip's plot bears no resemblance to the Warcraft setting and Sohmer has stated that it is set in an independent universe. Though the comic began as purely humorous in tone, it soon shifted to a more serious (albeit complicated) adventure, with most of the remaining comedy carried by Richard the warlock. A recurring gag in the comic features characters resembling famous fantasy characters such as Frodo Baggins, Obi Wan Kenobi and a Smurf appearing and then immediately being killed. Dialogue from The Lord of the Rings is often parodied, and pop culture references in medieval guise abound. The Comic is currently updated twice a week, on Mondays and Thursdays. Characters Cale'Anon Vatay Sooba Richard Benn'Joon Krunch Bloodrage Pella Supporting cast Commander Temmet Aelloon Chief Engineer Toyk Lord Stoll Styx Tim Leena (the Shriek) Tavor Captain Tah'Vraay The Keeper of the Way The Archmage of Kethenecia/Bunny The Guardians of Eight Lord Hctib Elttil Ray'd Bool Bloodrage Awards On June 14, 2008, the comic was awarded the Joe Shuster Award for Outstanding Canadian Web Comic Creators. Lar DeSouza accepted the award on behalf of himself and Ryan Sohmer. Major Events On Monday, 06 August 2007, at 10:59pm, Ryan Sohmer posted a video link in his blogs on the main pages of Looking For Group and its sister comic, Least I Could Do. The video, entitled "Slaughter Your World," features Richard, voiced by Dave B. Mitchell, singing a parodied version of the song "Part of Your World" from Disney's The Little Mermaid. The video shows Richard murdering an entire village. It is revealed at the end and in the blog that the latest (and longest) Looking For Group video is actually a trailer for "a full 75-90 minute feature film." The film, currently under the working title of "Looking For Group: The Movie" has "a target release of late 2008." However as of February 2009, the movie has yet to be released and little information is available. On March 2nd of 2008, Sohmer announced that they might be coming out with a video game. The video was the most watched one in YouTube for many days after its initial release and has altogether been watched over three million times. Within days, the video had become so popular that fans made numerous requests to be able to purchase the song. On August 19th, it was announced on the LFG Forum that an mp3 download version of Slaughter Your World would be available for a small fee. A second teaser trailer called LFG: This is War was recently let out, it features Richard and Cale in a battle. Cale tries to save some innocents and kills an attacking troll, while Richard kills the innocents and reveals that he started the war and fights for neither side. A limited edition collectible figurine of Richard was released for sale on November 15, 2007. The figurine was limited to 500 pre-orders, and sold out within 24 hours. The webmaster described the event as "--an eventful full day filled of near server explosions." Category:Content